Baylor Offense By The Numbers in 2013

For good reason, a lot has been made of the video game numbers that Baylor's offense has put up through the first 3 games this season. And you probably couldn't put up 70 points/game in a video game either (unless you cheated and played on Freshman mode). But just how ridiculous is this Baylor offense? I decided to dive into the numbers, with attention paid to recent history as well as just this season.

Recent History

First off, I don't think enough attention has been paid to just how dominant Baylor has been at Floyd Casey Stadium of late. In the first 15 seasons of the Big 12 from 1996-2010, Baylor was a paltry 36-54 in home games. Since the start of the 2011 season, it's been a completely different story as the Bears have gone 15-1 in 16 games at the Case and a perfect 5-0 over ranked opponents. In that span, Baylor is averaging 50.6 points/game and 619.1 yards/game. In the 15 wins, the Baylor offense has put up at least 40 points and 500 yards in each game. A large factor in the rise of Baylor football has been protecting the home turf. It'll be interesting to see how long this run can continue for the remainder of this season and into the new Baylor Stadium starting next year.

Baylor is currently on a 7 game winning streak dating back to the 52-24 program-defining win over #1 Kansas State last November. In this stretch, the Bears have outscored opponents by a whopping 403-152 margin, averaging 57.6 points/game and 659.6 yards/game. Much of this came with the emergence of Lache Seastrunk towards the end of last season. In the 9 games since he took over as starting RB, Baylor has averaged 301.9 rushing yards/game and has eclipsed 250 yards rushing in each of the 9 games. In the 7 game winning streak, Seastrunk has rushed for 1054 yards on just 108 carries (9.8 yards/carry!!!) and has gone over 100 yards in all 7 games, a Baylor record.

2013

This is where we get TURNT ALL THE WAY UP. Baylor has put up an obscene 209 points through 3 games, good for 69.7 points/game. It's worth pointing out that the FBS record for points/game for a season is 56.0 by Army way back in 1944. There obviously is a long way to go in this season and much tougher competition ahead, but if the Bears keep putting up points at anywhere near the rate that they have in the first 3 games, that record might be in jeopardy. Baylor has 25 offensive touchdowns in the first 3 games, a number only surpassed once for an entire season by the 1997-2005 Baylor teams (Kevin Steele's 1999 team had 11 offensive touchdowns all season). The scary thing for Baylor opponents is that the starters haven't played anything close to a full game yet to this point. But here's what they have done.

Bryce Petty has led the offense on the field for 28 drives, scoring touchdowns on 21 of them (75%). If you take out the 2 drives that ended a half and didn't see a proper conclusion, it's 21 of 26 resulting in touchdowns. 58 of 144 plays (40.3%) from scrimmage have gone for at least 10 yards. The offense under Petty has accumulated 1639 yards (11.4 yards/play) in just 35:28 of possession. The 546.3 yards/game that the starting offense has put up would still be enough to lead the Big 12, even though they have only been on the field for 5 2nd half drives.

What about just the 1st half? Baylor is averaging 47.7 points in the 1st half, a number that would rank #8 in FBS in scoring for an entire game. This number is obviously aided by the 4 defensive touchdowns, but it doesn't take anything away from the incredible amount of points being stashed up by this Baylor offense.

Now its time for the most fun part of this Baylor offense inception: the 1st quarter. As has been well documented, Baylor is averaging 30.3 points in the 1st quarter after scoring 28, 28 and 35 in the first 3 1st quarters. The 30.3 points ranks higher than 57 FBS teams average for an entire game. There are even 3 FBS teams (UMass, Miami-OH, FIU) that have not scored 30 points for the whole season and all of them have played 4 games. I believe the Bears are the first team to ever score 28+ in the first quarter in 3 consecutive games. The offense has scored 10 touchdowns in 11 drives (90.9%!!!). Baylor has run 52 offensive plays amassing 711 yards in just 11:20 in time of possession. This means that the Bears are averaging 13.7 yards/play while running a play every 13.1 seconds. Take a minute to let that sink in. That is over a yard per SECOND of possession.

These are just a few crazy stats that I was able to find or come up with. Feel free to add yours to the comments below. And never take for granted this machine that Art Briles has built. It's a good time to be a Baylor Bear. But you knew that already.